Dr.Florian
Frohns

Projects:

Analysis of the role of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) in the formation of an inner plexiform layer (IPL) of the chick embryonic retina using an in-vitro reaggregate system.

Starburst ACs (amacrine cells) are cholinergic cells, placed pair-wise on either side of the inner plexiform layer (IPL) of the retina; they are the first to establish separate ON and OFF sublaminae within the IPL, and can be traced by ChAT (cholinacetyl-transferase), the enzyme needed for the synthesis of acetylcholine.

There is strong evidence that these cholinergic ACs are most important for the entire network formation of the vertebrate retina. But even before the entire network formation takes place, AChE, the enzyme responsible for the breakdown of acetylcholine, seems to have important developmental roles during the early periods of retinal development.

AChE proves to be one of the candidates in the formation of the IPL in embryonic chick retina. With the use of a valuable reaggregate approach of the chicken embryonic retina, the development of a retina can be mimicked and analysed in a 3-dimensional tissue environment.

AChE is upregulated when retinal spheroids are treated with growth factors such as FGF2 and with lower concentrations of alpha amino adipate (AAA), a Müllar glia toxin, and this upregulation is found to be in link with the formation of the IPL.

This link of AChE and formation of IPL will be studied by immunohistological and molecular techniques.